Authentic Reconstruction: Authenticity, Architecture and the Built Heritage

Description

Notions of authenticity lie at the heart of many questions about heritage and identity in the built environment. These questions are most pertinent when buildings have been destroyed in disaster or war, and the built fabric is being reconstructed to reinstate traditional or historic appearances in place of what was lost. Authentic Reconstruction examines this idea of reconstruction, using it as a prompt to examine a range of deeper issues on heritage and the built environment. From post-WWII reconstruction programmes through to the rebuilding of historic cultural landscapes lost in natural disasters, this collection of essays by heritage specialists provides a wide range of case-studies and discussions. Each presents responses to crises and lessons learned, in order to extrapolate general guidelines for future actions by politicians, architects and planners in reconstructing buildings. The book also looks beyond disaster and war, noting how authenticity bears on political intentions and image building, exploring how reconstruction is used to tell a political or historical story, so conditioning the ways in which the built environment is perceived and appreciated by its users. This is not just about the buildings as bricks and mortar, but about perceptions of identity and the social and historical values which buildings and spaces embody for a richly diverse population. This book will be valuable to all who are concerned with heritage as practitioners or consumers, particularly those concerned with reconstruction and the creation of authentic places and experiences: architects, architectural historians, town planners, preservationists, conservationists, and those involved in heritage management and material culture.

John Bold is former Reader in Architecture at the University of Westminster, UK and a consultant to the Council of Europe on cultural heritage. Peter Larkham is Professor of Planning at Birmingham School of the Built Environment, Birmingham City University, UK. Robert Pickard is Emeritus Professor in Heritage Conservation at Northumbria University, UK, and a consultant to the Council of Europe on cultural heritage.

Timely, constructive, and essential reading for anyone seriously interested in the politics, practice and philosophies of historic preservation. The richness of the discussion and the range of examples extend its value far beyond the specific issue of post-disaster recovery... It contains some remarkable stories and is totally fascinating. * Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society * For urban historians interested in the ideas around heritage and reconstruction as well as the practicalities, this is an extremely useful volume. * Urban History * A call to arms . . . This excellent book seeks to become the beginning of a process, presenting more questions and dilemmas than answers, but setting out a process by which answers might be found. * International Journal of Heritage Studies *